Artsreach audiences are in for a treat this summer as Cornwall’s Miracle Theatre celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot by touring an open-air production to Dorset.
Over the years, Miracle Theatre has developed a reputation for producing a varied, high quality programme, which includes dynamic adaptations of classical works. This summer the Miracle magic will be applied to one of the most highly regarded, and debated, plays in the English language. Once famously described as a play in which ‘nothing happens, twice’, Miracle prove that Waiting for Godot is one of the most profound, moving and funny plays ever written.
“I have a great affection for Waiting for Godot” says director Bill Scott, “not just because Samuel Beckett, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969, has the universal and timeless appeal of Shakespeare, but because as a teenager I played The Boy, then at University I played Lucky and in 1985 I directed an early production of the play for Miracle. The play may have the reputation of being ‘high-brow’ – but only among people who have never seen it! In fact, it is funny and moving and we have assembled the perfect cast, all masters of tragicomedy, to give it the comic treatment that has become one of Miracle’s hallmarks.”
This production features a stellar cast of Miracle favourites, including Ben Dyson (Frankenstein!, The Importance of Being Earnest & Tin) and new-comer Ciaran Clarke (Frankenstein! & The Importance of Being Earnest). Miracle veterans Angus Brown (Quasimodo, Hamlet and Taming of the Shrew) and Steve Jacobs (Tin, Sherlock and Twelfth Night) also make a welcome return to the company this summer.
Both deadly serious and seriously funny, Beckett’s timeless masterpiece explores what makes us tick with clarity, dramatic force and irresistible humour, and has rarely been performed outdoors, which is surprising given it’s about two vagrants killing time under a tree. Grab your friends, bring a blanket, pack a picnic and get prepared for a night of Miracle madness – come rain or shine!
“Comical wordplay and the pure slapstick of the Marx Brothers…” The Stage
“A noble and faultless staging of a timeless piece”The Stage
Fri 2 August, 7:30pm Melbury Osmond Village Hall Field, Nr Yeovil. 01935 83410
Sat 3 August, 7:30pm Higher Orchard, Sandford Orcas. Nr Sherborne. 01963 220208
Sun 4 August, 7:30pm Kimmeridge Bay, nr Wareham. 01305 269512
Please note that these are outdoor performances, and that warm, weatherproof clothing is advised. The performance at Kimmeridge has been kindly sponsored by Perenco, and a BBQ will be available.
Visit www.artsreach.co.uk for further details
